Leviticus 2 – Lessons for Making Your Life an Effective Offering For Jesus

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Introduction: This chapter uses baking as a metaphor for a life offering for God. As a baker knows, there are both general and specific instructions to good baking. The general instructions include knowing who you will be cooking for and for what reason. The specific instructions are important for knowing what ingredients will be needed for the meal. A believer needs both the general and specific ingredients listed below for an effective life offering for God.

The general ingredients for a life offering. As set forth more fully below, the general ingredients for an effective life offering for God include the following seven elements. First, instead of a grain offering used in the Old Testament, you make an offering out of your own life. Second, you must offer your life in response to what Christ has already done for you. You are not offering your life to earn your salvation or favor with Him. Third, your life offering should be filled with joy and gratitude. Fourth, your life offering should model after Christ’s example. Fifth, because you were bought with a heavy price, you should offer yourself as an acceptable “living sacrifice” to God (Ro. 12:1). Sixth, your life offering should be obedient to both God’s Word and His calling for you. Finally, never let your life offering to God become a ritual or a routine. Unless an offering is from the heart, it is meaningless to God.

The specific ingredients for a life offering. In Leviticus Chapter 2, God also provides seven specific ingredients for an effective life offering. First, as symbolized by cooking with oil, your life offering must be led by the Spirit. Second, as symbolized by the unleavened bread, your life offering should be free from sin. Third, as symbolized by the fine crushed flour, your life offering should be crushed to allow God to lead. Your life offering should also include the best of your life. Fourth, as symbolized by the frankincense, your life offering should include regular prayer. From other passages in the Bible, prayer should be offered at least twice a day. Yet, prayer offered out of routine or ritual is meaningless. Fifth, as symbolized by the salt, your life offering should convict sinners the same way that salt stings in a wound. Your life offering must also not be changed or influenced by the world around you. Sixth, as symbolized by the prohibition on honey, your life offering should also involve some aspect of self-denial. Denying the flesh in some manner helps to control the flesh and allow you to fill your life offering with the Spirit. Finally, as symbolized by the priest’s share, your life offering should be filled with generosity toward others. This includes both tithing and helping the less fortunate around you.

Leviticus chapter 2:1 ‘Now when anyone presents a grain offering as an offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour, and he shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it. He shall then bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests; and shall take from it his handful of its fine flour and of its oil with all of its frankincense. And the priest shall offer it up in smoke as its memorial portion on the altar, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons: a thing most holy, of the offerings to the Lord by fire. ‘Now when you bring an offering of a grain offering baked in an oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers spread with oil. If your offering is a grain offering made on the griddle, it shall be of fine flour, unleavened, mixed with oil; you shall break it into bits and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering. Now if your offering is a grain offering made in a pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. When you bring in the grain offering which is made of these things to the Lord, it shall be presented to the priest and he shall bring it to the altar. The priest then shall take up from the grain offering its memorial portion, and shall offer it up in smoke on the altar as an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. 10 The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons: a thing most holy of the offerings to the Lord by fire. 11 ‘No grain offering, which you bring to the Lord, shall be made with leaven, for you shall not offer up in smoke any leaven or any honey as an offering by fire to the Lord. 12 As an offering of first fruits you shall bring them to the Lord, but they shall not ascend for a soothing aroma on the altar. 13 Every grain offering of yours, moreover, you shall season with salt, so that the salt of the covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt. 14 ‘Also if you bring a grain offering of early ripened things to the Lord, you shall bring fresh heads of grain roasted in the fire, grits of new growth, for the grain offering of your early ripened things. 15 You shall then put oil on it and lay incense on it; it is a grain offering. 16 The priest shall offer up in smoke its memorial portion, part of its grits and its oil with all its incense as an offering by fire to the Lord.” (Lev. 2:1-16).

I. The Seven General Ingredients for an Effective Life Offering for Christ

1. Cook With Your Life Actions.

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2. You Are Cooking In Response to Christ’s Sacrifice.

3. You Are Cooking For a Great Celebration in Heaven. Lev. 2:1-16; Dt. 26:8-11.

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4. You Will Be Cooking With Christ.

5. You Will Be Cooking up a “Living Sacrifice”.

6. While Cooking Your Life Offering, Be Obedient to The Head Chief.

7. Never Let Your Cooking Become a Ritual or Obligation.

II. The Seven Specific Ingredients of a Proper Grain (Life) Offering to God.

1. Cooking Tip no.1: The Holy Spirit is the Most Important Ingredient. (the Oil).

2. Cooking Tip no. 2: Only use a sinless life. (Unleavened Bread).

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3. Cooking Tip no. 3: Your Will Must Be Crushed. (the fine flour).

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4. Cooking Tip no. 4: Your Life Offering Must Include Regular Prayer. (the Frankincense).

5. Cooking Tip no. 5: Your Life Offering Should Convict Others. (the salt).

6. Cooking Tip no. 6: A life of denial brings joy. (the honey).

7. Cooking Tip no. 7: Be Generous with Your Life Offering. (The priest’s share).


  1. http://www.bhagavatam-katha.com/krishna-story-rich-men-who-give-grains-to-his-three-sons/↩︎